We go bouldering at Ice Pond and find a nice big boulder that is pleasantly vertical with flat landings, unlike most of the stuff there. The boulder is chalked, so we’re not the first ones to find it but we have no idea what any of the problems are – just pick a likely looking line and start up it.<\/p>\n
After a warmup problem that is neither too hard nor too scary, we move the pad down to one that turns out to be a lot harder and scarier than it looks. Todd sails right up to the sticking point. It takes me a lot of trying, encouragement, and beta to get there, but once I’m there I find a way to push the line a little higher.<\/p>\n
All I have to do is stand all the way up on that slopey right foot and I’ll be able to reach the lip of the boulder. I stand up, but only to the point where I need to let go with my right hand, which I can’t bring myself to do. I jump from that point a couple of times, thinking that jumping will give me the confidence to let go, but it doesn’t. Then I try downclimbing, which I can do but that isn’t so much of a confidence builder either – knowing you can downclimb under control doesn’t help you face that moment of no return, the point at which control is lost.<\/p>\n
Of course, this is the whole point of going bouldering – trying moves I don’t know if I can do in situations where falling is safe. So I do it. I let go and go for the top. The next thing I know I’m sliding down the rock, then hitting the pad, then lying on the ground breathing hard.<\/p>\n
Falling is different from jumping. Jumping is rock, air, pad. Falling is rock, rock, rock as you slide down it, then the pad, not quite square, then tipping over and leaves in your hair and a funny scrape on the back of your hand – how the hell did that get there? – but it’s still safe.<\/p>\n
I try a couple more times, shaking, refusing to let go again.<\/p>\n
“Now that I’ve fallen once, you’d think I wouldn’t be afraid to do it again,” I say to Todd, wishing it were true.<\/p>\n
Once again, this is the whole point of going bouldering. <\/p>\n
One last try, I tell myself. We’re both feeling the effects of the top, left hold on our fingertips. From the ground I think, if I could just get that hold as more of a sidepull, but once up there the best I can do is hook my pinky slightly around the crystal. I look my right foot carefully onto the high step. There’s the tiniest bit of an edge there, which I need. Once I’m stood up the initial smear won’t hold, as I learned while siding down the face. Rock onto the edge as you stand up, I tell myself.<\/p>\n
I stand most of the way up. Do it, dammit. Let go. I do it. My hand is on top. I did it.<\/p>\n
“Check your feet,” Todd warns, but my feet are OK now that I’ve touched the top and I’m not scared. The finishing mantle is easy. I’m a champion.<\/p>\n
P.S. Cam*Smasher says this was probably Afterthought, V4. Yay me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We go bouldering at Ice Pond and find a nice big boulder that is pleasantly vertical with flat landings, unlike most of the stuff there. The boulder is chalked, so we’re not the first ones to find it but we have no idea what any of the problems are – just pick a likely looking… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bouldering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dawnalguard.com\/climbing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}